Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has managed to inject herself into the national conversation by enchanting progressives and enraging conservatives with her outlandish proposals. Many on the right dismiss her has ignorant, arrogant, and stupid, but underestimating her would be a grave mistake. She may not be very knowledgeable, but she is intelligent and fiercely persuasive – to her progressive base.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Dilbert-creator Scott Adams, who is a trained hypnotist, was among the first people to recognize her talent, and likened her skills to the master persuader himself, President Donald Trump. The similarities are striking: Both use effective techniques such as hyperbole to expand the Overton window, and both polarize and thereby capture the attention on all sides of the political spectrum. She might well be a left-wing Trump.

But what about her blatant ignorance? How can she be smart when she believes crazy stuff like the idea that we are all going to die from global warming unless we stop flying airplanes? In the realm of politics, Adams points out, facts don’t matter. Political pundit Ben Shapiro likes to say that “facts don’t care about your feelings” when he replies to oversensitive social justice warriors. This is true, but Ocasio-Cortez embodies an even deeper truth: Feelings don’t care about your facts.

A Political Entrepreneur

Although she has a childlike level of understanding of science and economics, she has built confidence in her persuasion techniques empirically from talking to fellow millennials. Thanks to the deterioration of the education system in the last half-century, the people who are growing up today are so stunningly misinformed and stuffed with progressive propaganda that an enormous opportunity has arisen for those who are sufficiently bold: You can tell them things that are virtually void of facts, and they will still respond positively as long as it conforms with the narrative that generates a sense of moral superiority.

The old guard Democrats never realized this. They wanted to push leftward, but always believed that they had to sneak socialism and leftism in the backdoor through cloaked language and misdirection. Ocasio-Cortez was the first major talent on the left to realize that progressives responded well to “bold messages.”

All too many conservatives fall into the trap of either denigrating her as stupid or getting lost in the weeds of details concerning factual errors. None of that matters – if progressives believe the people objecting to her are evil racists, sexists, and bigots who hate polar bears, they will not care about anything you have to say.

Ocasio-Cortez is a political entrepreneur selling a narrative and a feeling of moral supremacy. The tale is not true, but there is a major market for it, and she is a shrewd seller. Her sales pitch can only be counteracted by a better story.

Trump Still Winning

For now, Trump is doing a better job than the young democratic socialist. Despite a 90% negative coverage by the fake news media, his approval rating is higher than that of President Barack Obama at the same stage in his presidency. He achieves this in part by skillfully manipulating the media into behaving so irrationally and absurdly that it pulls people out of the movie that the left wants them to live in.

However, Trump will not be president forever, and if conservatives want to stem the tide of socialism and Green New Deals, they should learn the art of telling a good story that is not only true, but also creates the right feeling. Remember: Feelings don’t care about your facts.

25 Comments

Timothy Morgan

If anything at all, OVER estimate her, and often. “A fool flatters himself, the wise man, the fool.” Meanwhile, she’s a gift from heaven above that’s so very much like the Energizer Bunny; it keeps going and GOING. Like it or no, she provided the setting in which the closet socialists have been dragged out of their respective closets kicking and screaming. Whereas heretofore, they’ve been compelled to keep such sentiments under wraps as they’ve been well aware that that bovine feces doesn’t sell well on Main Street. And come election time, they’ll have no choice but to ‘dance with the one who brung ya’. –Timmy Seventy-five

Diogenes

In some ways, yes, she got lucky. From what I heard, assuming it is true, only 4% in the mostly Latino district she represents voted in that election, at all. But her media exposure was immediately hyped, to make her a rising star. Just as Obama’s was.

But considering human nature and politics in America, people of any race or ethnicity tend to vote for their own kind – no matter what. Tribalism. Group think. Pack mentality.

Don’t expect anyone to be able to think if they have never been taught to think.

rusty4.5

Justice Democrats put out an ad to recruit new faces. She was chosen out of 10,000 applicants. She didn’t send her name in to Justice Democrats, her brother did. She was recruited, then nominated, then elected by a small percentage of voters who actually voted in her district.

rusty4.5

The Justice Democrats put out ads for recruits. AOC didn’t respond. Her brother entered her name and she was recruited. Voter turnout was only at 4% in her district. ‘Wonder what the other 96% was thinking…or not.

rockylee

Timothy Morgan

If anything at all, OVER estimate her, and often. “A fool flatters himself, the wise man, the fool.” Meanwhile, she’s a gift from heaven above that’s so very much like the Energizer Bunny; it keeps going and GOING. Like it or no, she provided the setting in which the closet socialists have been dragged out of their prospective closets kicking and screaming. Whereas heretofore, they’ve been compelled to keep such sentiments under wraps as they’ve been well aware that that bovine feces doesn’t sell well on Main Street. And come election time, they’ll have no choice but to ‘dance with the one who brung ya’. –Timmy Seventy-five

lazarus

Successful politicians, on both sides of the aisle, gain their successes by saying what their base wants to hear. AOC cares less about the total transgression of basic mathematics that her socialist plan requires – facts are often truly irrelevant to the American electorate, witness two terms of the Clinton Criminal Cartel and two terms of the Obama Criminal Cartel. The depths of the abject stupidity of the American electorate are yet to be measured.

Diogenes

I will quote a set of observations stated by one of the most astute psychologists ever, Manuel J. Smith, PhD, in his book, Here Be Dragons. He titled the chapter: All The Sacred Cows Are Dead So Stop Believing And Start Thinking:

An Environmental Bill Of Belief Observations

Observation I: Truth
To be useful your beliefs need not be true.

Observation II: Universality
To be useful your beliefs need not be universal.

Observation Iii: Eternality
To be useful your beliefs need not be ageless.

Observation IV: Higher Authority
To be useful your beliefs need not be approved by some higher authority.

Observation V: Natural Law
To be useful your beliefs need not be based on laws of Nature.

Observation X: Intelligence
To be useful your beliefs need not be based upon some greater intelligence

“Your beliefs do not need to be arrived at through high intellectual ability, but can be gotten through simple experience, including trial and error, or social indoctrination. If beliefs required great intellect as their basis, none of us would have them…”

There are MANY people who are educated beyond their level of intelligence. And copious amounts of learning divorced of logic and/or common sense is a VERY dangerous thing. Liberal ideology perfectly magnifies these truths for all to see.

“…but she is intelligent…” And then you go on to say how unintelligent she actually is. Childlike intelligence is correct but “confidence” does not make a person intelligent. All that having been said, I agree with you that the policies she presents, regardless of how ridicules they are, absolutely have to be taken seriously. She is being fed these ideas and talking points from people that really are intelligent and for better or worse, she is a good spokesperson for presenting those policies. Conservatives argue that history shows that socialism and all it’s tenants fail every time they are tried but then ignore the history that this argument has failed every time it is tried. So I completely agree with your last paragraph (and most of the rest of what you wrote). There needs to be a comprehensive Political Science course on what Trump does right and how he captured the hearts and minds of the American electorate.

rusty4.5

AOC is entertaining to those who can see through her performance. To the unaware, she may be a role model. She’s young, and except for those Charlie Manson eyes she isn’t really ugly. However, she has an out of control ego which prevents her from seeing when she’s making a fool of herself.

After illegally hiring her boyfriend, going on some serious shopping sprees, and among other questionable actions including supporting late and live birth abortion, she’s puffed herself up. She may even see herself as the next Che Guevara, or Vladimir Lenin. Now that she’s making lots of money and not sharing it with others to help make things more “socialist”, she is truly living out the socialist dream. “She’s a politician now”…she doesn’t have to be serious about rules and she can pretend all she wants because “money is free” to those in power.

She reminds me of that little ditty, “There was a little curl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was very, very good and when she was bad, she was horrid.”

Onar Åm

It’s easy to confuse intelligence and ignorance. Those are not the same thing. If you are not familiar with the famous cartoon “Calvin & Hobbes,” I would urge you to check it out. It portrays a highly intelligent boy who lives in his own fantasy world, and this is in part what makes it funny. Now, replace Calvin & Hobbes With Alexandria & Marx, and you have a similar set up. Being able to live in a fantasy world is highly IQ demanding, and is one of the primary mental traps of highjly intelligent people.

rusty4.5

Onar, ignorance and naivety are two different things. I wouldn’t call living in a fantasy world one of the ‘primary mental traps of highly intelligent people’. The reasons a highly intelligent person resorts to fantasy may be varied.

I have two cousins, both with IQ’s of 165. One was raised by conscientious parents. The other was raised by an abusive father. The first cousin went on to become an engineer who designed jet airplane engines. The second cousin became a truck driver and re-enactment actor. Both smart, one with common sense, the other with none. The first cousin had all the support a child could hope for and he knew how to deal with life. The second cousin was denied love and encouragement, and he didn’t have the opportunities he should have had – he was also ignorant of his own abusive behaviors. Dysfunction aside, he was naive to what it takes to function on an even keel. The first cousin was happy, the second cousin was confused and bitter.

Onar Åm

While this is a great story, and quite persuasive, it is still a fact that living in a fantasy world is a mentally challenging task, and therefore is often limited to those with high mental abilities. How else can you explain that so many people with IQs in the stratosphere still believes in socialism after all the horrors it has generated?

rusty4.5

The above example is not a ‘story’. High intellectual ability is an inherited condition. A person is either born with it or they’re not. In my family’s case, it showed up in both my parents’ sides.

Living in a fantasy world is indicative of other problems – upbringing, organic damage, environment, etc.. High intelligence is not the CAUSE of dysfunction. Example: One of my neighbors has all the characteristics of a sociopath. She has no qualms about stalking others whom she feels deserve her wrath. She is highly intelligent and can come up with myriad ways to torment someone, but she doesn’t live in a fantasy world – to her, it’s all real, and she never questions what she’s done.

It’s been proven that a physical part of the brain of psychopaths and sociopaths is smaller than normal, and this prevents them from having normal feelings. Because they are highly intelligent and have no real feelings, many end up in high places in business and government – jobs which result in distance from ‘the little people’. However, they ‘earn’ these positions through deceit, then once they’re found out they either leave the scene for greener pastures full of potential victims or they are forced out.

If socialism appeals to highly intelligent people it’s because socialism demands allegiance to a society that doesn’t demand feelings like guilt, love or compassion (all emotions which trigger fantasy but which sociopaths and psychopaths do not have). Socialism is a perfect place for those who have high intelligence and zero compassion, creativity or the ability to feel remorse. They know how to ‘act’ one way or another, but such acting isn’t based on a desire to perform but on a desire to appear ‘normal’ to society. They always need a supply of victims.

Why do you think democrats are stuck like a broken record? Their brains are too small to do otherwise.

AOC didn’t ‘run’ for office. She was recruited, and that’s how she went from tending bar to the halls of congress. She’s an empty shell that requires adulation and she uses her high intelligence to get it.

Onar Åm

High intelligence can indeed be the cause of dysfunction, just like any significant biological deviation from the norm can be such a cause. Someone who is 3 standard deviations taller than the average is likely going to encounter issues that are problematic, simply because her condition is rare and not well tested in nature. Most people are in the middle, which also means that they carry well-tested genes and genetic combinations, and are thus less subject to dysfunction.

Jone Bjørheim

You are right. My experience in life is that not very smart people (i.e. really stupid), very often have a lot of confidence. They do not seem to realize their own shortcomings at all, while smart people unfortunately often have problems with confidence and self esteem.

International Correspondent at LibertyNation.com. Onar is a Norwegian author who has written extensively on politics, technology, and science. He has a mathematics and physics background and has been a technological entrepreneur for twenty years, working in areas ranging from biomass gasification and AI to 3D cameras and 3D TV. He is currently also the Editor of the alternative news site Ekte Nyheter (Authentic News) in Norway. Onar is the author of The Climate Bubble (2007) and The Art of War (2008).

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About the author

International Correspondent at LibertyNation.com. Onar is a Norwegian author who has written extensively on politics, technology, and science. He has a mathematics and physics background and has been a technological entrepreneur for twenty years, working in areas ranging from biomass gasification and AI to 3D cameras and 3D TV. He is currently also the Editor of the alternative news site Ekte Nyheter (Authentic News) in Norway. Onar is the author of The Climate Bubble (2007) and The Art of War (2008).